Nordin and Fraser (1956), as well as many other authors, have reported that patients with osteomalacia retain more of an infused dose of calcium than normal persons. A high retention of infused calcium by itself has been taken as diagnostic of osteomalacia (Harvald et al., 1962 ; Deller et al., 1963; Thompson et al., 1966). Nordin and Fraser suggested that the calcium retained in osteomalacia w...

BACKGROUND Celiac disease is an autoimmune inflammatory disease of the small intestine precipitated by the ingestion of gluten, a component of wheat protein, in genetically susceptible persons. Classically, the disease manifests with diarrhea, weight loss and anemia. There are very few reports of osteomalacia as the presenting symptom, and even fewer of osteomalacia as the only symptom of celia...

Vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphisms have been suggested as possible determinants of bone mineral density (BMD) and calcium metabolism. In this study, our aim was to determine whether there is an association between VDR gene polymorphism and osteomalacia or not. We determined ApaI and TaqI polymorphisms in the vitamin D receptor gene in 24 patients with osteomalacia and 25 age-matched he...

Rickets and osteomalacia are associated with hypophosphatemia in several disease states, including X-linked hypophosphatemic rickets, autosomal-dominant hypophosphatemic rickets, and tumor-induced osteomalacia. Recent advances in the understanding of these diseases include discovery of mutations in the genes encoding human phosphate-regulating gene with homologies to endopeptidases on the X chr...

We report five patients with nutritional osteomalacia who presented with the symptoms and signs of plantar fasciitis. All the patients were Asian vegetarian women. All improved with treatment of the osteomalacia, albeit slowly in two cases.

Data from a retrospective study in 41 patients is used to suggest an index of bone disease. This is designed as a means of collating available results, clarifying the significance of each in diagnosing either osteomalacia or osteoporosis, and reducing the significance of a single abnormal finding--for example, a raised alkaline phosphatase activity or low serum 25 hydroxy vitamin D, when the ov...

INTRODUCTION Severe proximal myopathy can occasionally be the first presenting complaint of patients with osteomalacia. This may lead to investigations and misdiagnosis of a neuromuscular disease, rather than a metabolic bone disease. CASE PRESENTATIONS We present here two cases of severe proximal myopathy in patients who were both of South Asian origin and lacto-vegetarians: a 31-year-old In...

Osteomalacia may be a contributory factor in some patients in the development of fractures of the femoral neck and complicate the subsequent management. The level of serum alkaline phosphatase is often valuable in the diagnosis of metabolic bone disease but rises after any uncomplicated fracture, and since such a rise may limit the diagnostic usefulness of this measurement in detecting osteomal...